The Impossible Paradox
by imajammydodger
Summary: The Doctor and River are married. Yay! AU because there isn't all that timey-wimey stuff stopping them. But then they meet a girl, and their lives change forever... Please R&R, I suck at summaries, more inside!
1. I Do

Well hi there! :D

This is my second Doctor Who fanfic, but the first one I've uploaded... So. Yeah. Reviews would be very welcome. I've said it before, this one's a bit AU due to the fact that the Doctor and River can get married just like that. But other things will make their lives more complicated, so it's all fine. If you do manage to guess who the girl is (which I doubt will be that hard, as it's more than a little obvious) please don't blurt it. Because there may be some people (like me, probably, if I was reading this and not writing it) that won't have guessed. Unlikely, but there you go. I've gone on enough for now, so I'll let you get on with the fic. BUT FIRST: A DISCLAIMER

I do not own Doctor Who or any of its characters :'( BIG SADFACE. But, if the oppurtunity arises, they are MINE. Well, enjoy! (Hopefully)

* * *

><p>River Song took a deep breath. 'I do,' she said, looking at the man in front of her, scarcely believing it was real, it was happening, and that it wasn't a dream. She faintly heard something about kissing the bride, and then their lips were touching and she was reaching her hands up to knot in his hair, and then she realised where they were and why it probably wasn't such a good idea to be so... forward. As they broke apart, he whispered to her: 'This is real, this is happening, and it's definitely not a dream.' She half-laughed, half-growled at him – she pretended she hated it when he looked inside her head at the "private stuff" but they both knew that a) she loved it and b) private? What was there to hide? He held out his hand and she clasped it, wishing that she never had to let go... 'You don't, if you don't want to,' he replied quietly, chuckling. She prodded him gently in the side and laughed with him. Nothing could spoil their day. Or so she thought...<p>

As the couple walked out into the sunlight, the guests following them, River saw something in the corner of her eye. She turned sharply, but only saw a flash of blonde hair and the heel of a shoe disappearing round the corner. What was she going to do? Chase after whoever it was in her wedding dress? Just for being fast? She shook herself. _Don't be silly, River. It was probably nothing. _So she smiled for the pictures and clapped at the speeches and danced to so many songs she thought her feet were going to explode – 'It can happen, you know,' he'd said to that, and she'd laughed, of course – and it was three songs till the end, and that's when she saw her properly. A girl, probably about thirteen, at a guess, standing outside the glass doors and watching River and her husband very carefully. When she saw that she'd been noticed, she smiled, almost sadly, looking right into River's eyes. The eyes... bluey-green and strangely familiar. She held up hand in a silent farewell, before disappearing round the corner.

'Doctor...' she said quietly. Her husband looked down a her.

'Hello,' he said, smiling. 'Are you okay? You seem a little... I don't know...' He trailed off.

'There's a girl. I saw her at the ceremony earlier, and she looked a little... familiar.' She looked up right into his eyes, and her breath caught in her throat. _Bluey-green and strangely familiar... _'I need to find her,' she said urgently. 'Go and dance with... with Rory. He's looking a bit lost, because Amy's dancing with Captain Jack. I'll be right back.'

River walked quickly into the reception and straight out of the doors, her arms getting goosebumps as the cold night air hit her skin. A vioce from behind startled her.

'I knew you'd come.' It was the girl.

'Who are you?' Whispered River.

'I can't tell you now. It would only distract you...'

'Have I met you before?'

'It's strange. Once, a very long time ago, in the future. I didn't mean to interrupt your wedding, I was just looking.' Her eyes seemed to drift suddenly, into some sort of daydream. 'I'll see you again. I just wanted to see.' She began to walk away. River, to say the least, felt confused. She wanted to call the girl back, but before she could, she turned once again. 'I really am sorry. I wish I could tell you more. You weren't even meant to know I was here. I just wanted to see.' And with that, she'd walked away, and River went inside. Just before the doors closed, she saw a flash of white light out of the corner of her eye.

'Who was it?' Asked the Doctor quietly as they stpped together for the final song.

'Someone we've met once before, a very long time ago, in the future.' She repeated the words, and he made a face.

'Time streams. They always confuse me.' River laughed, and pushed all thoughts of the strange girl from her mind. Tonight was about _her..._ and him.

'Come on, sweetie,' she said, pulling him closer. 'It's the last dance. Let's give them something to remember us by.' He chuckled.

'As if we're forgettable. The Professor and the Doctor. Magic hair and a blue box. Let's give them something to remember us by.' He dropped her, then caught her a centimetre from the floor. 'I'll always catch you, River Song,' he whispered, before kissing her gently.

And of course, she kissed him back, and that night she could forget herself for a while, but when they finally fell asleep in the small hours, her back pressed against his chest, his arms wrapped around her waist, both of them breathing as one, she dreamed. She dreamed of the girl, and that strange light in the corner of her eye when she left, and the flash of blonde hair that she'd seen after the wedding. But mainly she'd dreamed of those eyes. The Doctor's eyes, right down to the last speck of colour, except when you looked in to his eyes, you could always find happiness somewhere, but in hers... River shivered in her dreams.

* * *

><p>Well. I hope you liked it. If you did, tell me, if you didn't, tell me. Wonderful thing called a review button. Ah yes, I can see your cursor hovering right above it, because you're just itching to review this. Well, don't let me stop you.<p>

*In a loud whisper* This is your cue to review it.

Thankyou, and if I get... hmm... two or three reviews I'll upload another chapter.


	2. Three Years Later

Hello again!

First off, I'd just like to say thankyou to everybody who reviewed. I've never had a review before xD and I have to tell you, it felt special. Well, that sounded sad. Okay, I'm going to try and upload another chapter every two-three days, as I'm juggling schoolwork and home stuff etc.

I'd just like to say, I'm sorry if this chapter isn't as good as the first, I do try. But I always find it hard to write second chapters.

And before the fanfic: A DISCLAIMER!

I do not own Doctor Who or any of its characters :( which I find exceedingly sad and unfair. But, I do own the girl. Which is what I will now refer to her as. You will see why in the fic!

Enjoy (hopefully) and Review (yes please)!

* * *

><p><em>-Three Years Later-<em>

'This is a customer announcement. Please would River Song come to the reception desk immediately. Thankyou, and have a nice day.' The PA popped the bubble of relaxation River had been inside all day. She opened her eyes and looked at the Doctor. He propped himself up on his elbow.

'Should I go?' She asked, but what she really meant was _Can I leave you? _The Doctor was about to say something else when the PA sounded again.

'This is a customer announcement. Please would River Song come to the reception desk immediately. Thankyou, and have a nice day.'

'Well, I suppose that's just been decided for you,' he said, lying back down. As she walked passed him, he caught her hand and kissed it. 'Don't be long,' he whispered against her knuckles, and she smiled.

River arrived at reception about ten minutes later. Some part of her brain was telling her that she should probbly hurry up a bit, but she refused on the ground that if this person was disturbing her anniversary, the least they could do was wait. Little did she know how much affect waiting had on this particular person. The reception was pretty much deserted when she got there, aside from a three-headed tourist wearing a Disneyland Clom t-shirt and a lone staff member at the desk. Then, out of nowhere, a voice.

'I thought you weren't coming!' River turned, surprised, wondering who it was, where she had heard that voice before. Her eyes widened.

'It's you,' was all she could manage to say. The first thing she did, unconciously almost, was to look up into her eyes. They were ever so slightly red-rimmed, as if she'd been crying, but apart from that, they were still the same. Chills went up River's spine, and the girl smirked.

'Yes, it's me. From the wedding. I found you again!' she held up her wrist, showing a Vortex Manipulator. 'I have been looking _everywhere _for you. But I've always been too late. It's always "Ooh, they've been gone a few days now" and "Yes, they left a week ago," but FINALLY, I found you! I mean, properly. When you weren't distracted by weddings and... stuff. And look at you! You don't look as if you've aged at all! You still look like my m- erm... Marvellous! You still look marvellous!'

'Thanks...' Said River, looking at the girl. _Why would I have aged? It's only been three years. But she doesn't look like she's aged one day. _'Look. I appreciate that you've obviously been looking for us, but I don't understand why you're here. Who even are you?' The girl screwed up her face, trying to think of a way to get around the question, and then she grinned.

'Spoilers,' she replied cheekily, before turning and setting off at a quick pace out of the reception.

'Wait!' Called River, hurrying to catch up with her. 'How do you know about "spoilers"?' She knew she was probably being stupid, that it was just a word chosen randomly, with no great meaning, but...

'Oh _please. _How could I not know about it, when my parents use it all the time? Especially' – here her smile widened – 'My mum.'

'What?'Asked the Doctor, looking from one face to the other, searching for any sign of a lie or uncertainty. Unfortunately for him, he found none. '_What?' _The girl opened her mouth to speak, but he held up a hand to stop her. 'No. It's sort of a rhetorical question, you see, it means I sit here and don't comprehend the situation at all, and you stand and watch, and everything I say before I understand the situation is meaningless. I think another "What" should do it... _WHAT?' _Quite a few startled Space Florida sunbathers opened their eyes and looked around in alarm upon hearing the noise. 'Sorry, sorry...' said the Doctor, and then he turned his attention back to River and the girl. 'Right. Okay, first things first, who _are_ you? I mean, apart from our daughter... Who technically shouldn't even be here.' The girl made a hand gesture, as if waving something out of the air.

'Technicalities. And if it's a name you're looking for, I'm afraid that's easier said than... Oh. Said.' The Doctor started to ask a question, but she cut him off. 'I don't have a name. You did name me, at some point in time, but I've forgotten. _The time vortex does that to you,' _she muttered, too low for them to hear.

'You've forgotten? How can you forget your own name?'

'What's yours then?' She asked, grinning, knowing she'd touched a bit of a nerve.' His breath caught a little in his throat.

'That's... That's different. Besides, even if I did tell someone, they wouldn't understand. Gallifreyan, you see.'

'Go on then. Try me.'

'Okay... Brain overload slightly, more than slightly, what? Again with the "what"s...'

'Gallifreyan.' She pointed to herself. 'I can speak Gallifreyan. And I can just about read it, but writing, I'm hopeless.' She paused for a second, and then continued. 'Which brings you on to your next question, _what _am I? One hundred percent Time Lord, regenerations and the lot. Which must prove I'm your daughter. Right?' At the end, she sounded hopeful, desperate even, trying to belong to them. _But why? _The Doctor and River thought it almost simeltaneously. The Doctor remembered a boy called George, whose monsters were real, who wanted to belong to his family so much. And the Doctor had helped him. But now... _It's different, _the Doctor insisted to himself, but deep inside he knew it wasn't. Next to him, River whispered something so faint that he only just cauht because the wind was blowing in the right direction.

'The eyes...' _The eyes. _River didn't know it, because the Doctor hadn't told her, but every night for the past three years, when River had been asleep, she would talk. And she would only say two words. _The eyes. _The Doctor looked across at the girl, sitting so still on the sun lounger in front of him, bunching the fabric of her skirt in one of her hands, knuckles white. She was scrutinising him, and making no attempt to hide it. And then, purely by accident, he made eye contact with her.

The first thing that startled him was the fact that her eyes were almost an exact clone of his. But below the surface were other things, things that he hadn't thought possible to see in a child's eyes. _But, _he thought, _though she is a child, these are not the eyes of a child. She's seen far too much. _There was pain, only just under the surface, so much that it was tangible, and then sadness, a thick, suffocating sadness that for a second extinguished any spark of light in the Doctor's being. And if you looked hard enough, you could see desperation. And even further behind, anger and a small amount of insanity. _What... _thought the Doctor, _who... Who could you possibly be? _But what he said was: 'Yes. Yes... Right. You've got to be ours.' And though he wasn't looking any more, a tiny flame of happiness lit up in those eyes.

* * *

><p>Hello, it's me again. Hiding at the bottom of your screen. I hope you enjoyed it! I enjoyed writing it :)<br>And I'd just like to say, about updates, that I actually have written most of the fanfic... But I write it on trains, and then I have to type it up. Which takes ages, because I'm a perfectionist.

And a random fact before you go that you may already know: Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat both started out as fanfic writers. So the future's bright! :D


	3. 20 Questions and a Vortex Manipulator

Over the next few days, the girl was inseparable from her parents. Anywhere they were found, she was found too. River thought it was kind of sweet at first, like having some sort of pet following them around, and when the girl thought they weren't looking, River had seen her staring at them in what could only be described as awe. But even though the girl was obviously disbelieving that her parents were actually _there, _whenever River or the Doctor posed a personal question, she would shut herself off completely, either refusing to answer, and if she did her answers would be brief and unhelpful. One night, when the Doctor and River were lying peacefully in a tangle of arms and legs, and he was sleepily kissing her neck, she said: 'It doesn't make sense.' He knew what she was talking about, from the way she said it.

'Since when does anything make sense, in our lives?'

'I know, but this is just... I can't make head or tail of it. I can't make head or tail of _her. _I don't understand why she's here. So far, the only useful thing I've got out of her is the fact that she doesn't want to leave in case she never finds us again. And then she looked as if she'd just betrayed all the secrets of the British Government to a member of Al-Qaeda.' He chuckled against her neck.

'Let's not think about that now,' he whispered. 'It's our anniversary. Tonight's about us.' _Yes, _thinks River, remembering that look in the girl's eyes when she saw them, underneath the awe. _It's about us. It's always about us..._ But she never finished that thought, because he had begun to kiss her in such a way that she had to devote her full attention to him, and then she started kissing back, and then shenanigans ensued, as they do, and River and the Doctor forgot all about the girl in the room opposite, who like them was very much not asleep, but for a very different reason. Perhaps, if they had been paying attention, they would have seen the white light creeping under the door from her room, and spilling out into the corridor, and finding its way into theirs, but they were far too lost in each other to realise that their daughter was in danger of getting lost in something else completely... Something much more deadly.

The holiday was drawing to a close, and the girl was still staying, inexplicably, put. She'd given them a bit more space now, which was nice, because the Doctor and River hadn't really wanted to say anything, in order not to offend her. But she was here, again. She seemed to have this pattern of leaving them alone for a couple of days and then staying really close for one day. Today was one of those days. They were sitting together around a coffee table, and the Doctor was frowning over a Gallifreyan crossword while the girl was attempting to read a book about quantum physics written in Russian. River was the only one who wasn't doing anything, but she was sure that she wasn't the only one who could feel the uncomfortable silence hanging in the air. After a few more moments, she slammed her palms down on the table. The Doctor looked up in surprise, and the girl gave a start, almost dropping her book. 'I've had enough of this!' She said, her voice dangerously close to shouting level.

'River...' Cautioned the Doctor, but she waved him away with an impatient hand, instead focusing on the girl.

'Please. You seem to know everything about us, yet we know next to nothing about you. Can we at least talk?' The girl looked down, avoiding River's gaze.

'Everything you ask... I find it hard to answer. Time's fragile enough as it is, without me rampaging all over it and telling you two everything you need to know about me to make it possible for you to hold a conversation with me.' River thought she heard bitterness somewhere in the girl's tone, but she wasn't sure. 'But I suppose... I could try.'

'Right.' Said the Doctor, taking over the situation. 'Why don't you start by telling us why you're here?' The girl's face flushed and she could hear the blood pounding in her ears. She couldn't tell them, she really couldn't. They would come to the wrong conclusion, and she didn't want to be responsible for another one of those things on the big pile of guilt her parents were sitting on. But she'd promised to try.

'Something in my timeline,' she said, and she quickly continued when she saw her father open his mouth to protest. 'It's not a fixed point in time...' _Well, it better not be, _she thought grimly. 'But it's important, and I need to change it. And the only way I could find it is if I found you. Which I did.'

'Yes, but when is it? Days? Weeks? How long are you going to have to wait?' The Doctor couldn't help but notice she winced on the word wait, but he was too preoccupied to wonder why.

'It's right at the beginning. My birth,' she explained, and the Doctor and River shared a look.

'Sorry, but you haven't been conceived yet. You're going to wait at least nine months. Which brings me on to my next question – something that River mentioned to me earlier – you've got a Vortex Manipulator, time travel, right there on your wrist. So why don't you just go there now? Why wait with us?' The girl started fiddling with the Vortex Manipulator, playing with the fastening, so agitated that the plastic snapped and it fell off her wrist.

'Well... Er... I haven't got it worked out quite yet. The whole date thing. I can normally get stuff by the year, but...' Even to her own ears, the lie sounded feeble. _She's a Time Lord, _the Doctor thought, _yet she can't even control a Vortex Manipulator?_

'So you're just going to come with us? Follow us around until whatever happens, happens? But we hardly know you.' The girl's eyes flashed fire, and the colour rose in her cheeks.

'But that's what you do, isn't it, _Dad?' _She almost spat the word out as she stood up. 'You've told me all the stories, you show up and you take people away, and you show them the universe, and you take them away from what's waiting for them back _home _on _Earth _and you take them away from all their problems, and you help them run away.' Her voice had grown dangerously quiet. 'Well, what if there was somebody who didn't even have a home, or a planet even, and had seen too much and had too many problems, and all they wanted to do was run away? What then?' And with that, she spun round and left, and they heard her angry footsteps echoing down the corridor.

'Maybe we should go after her...' Said River, but the Doctor shook his head.

'Leave her. We should never have done this, River,' and at that moment his eyes flashed up to meet hers, and he held her with a gaze so intense she felt it burning right through her. 'You never should have let her. But it's fine,' he said, as River folded her arms, 'I know why you did it. She's too much like me, I know. Who could resist having two of me around, even if one of them is a slightly hormonal teenage girl?' He flashed her a cocky smile, and reached out his fingers to lace with hers. She laughed, and then looked over at the recently vacated chair.

'Oh, look... She left her Vortex Manipulator, should I give it back to her?' She went to get it, and the Doctor held out his hands.

'Can I just check something?' He asked, pulling out his sonic, and she passed it to him. He scanned it, and River watched as his face turned from interested to confused to just plain incomprehension. 'But that's impossible...' He whispered.

'What? What is?'

'You're sure she said she came here using this?'

'Positive. You heard her.'

'Well, River, she can't have.'

'What?'

'This Vortex Manipulator's been out of use for centuries. River, it's broken. Terminally.'


	4. Time Lords and vodka don't mix

'What?' River couldn't believe what she'd just heard.

'Broken. It's completely, 100%, broken. Battery pack's corrupted, it has never worked, it's a... factory reject, I suppose.'

'Then how...?' River left the question hanging.

'I don't know. But I _do _know that what we're dealing with is far bigger than either of us expected. And it's all _her.' _The Doctor was, for once in his life, at a loss for words. He really didn't know how to explain this. Normally he had some sort of idea, but...

'Well, what do we do?'

'To be honest, River, there's not much we _can _do.'

'So this is it? You're just giving up? Just like that?'

'I'm not giving up, I'm just... laying the situation to rest for the time being. Because I don't know what's going on, and I know that I won't know until it's too late! For once in my life, I don't know the answer!' He walked out too then, mumbling something about getting a drink.

_Well, _thought River, _he's made a good excuse. But did he really need to be so cocky about it?_

That night, after River and the Doctor had spent far too long in the Space Florida club, probably having a few too many drinks – the Doctor had started dancing, and River was sure he was under the influence (he was _terrible_) but when she realised that he was perfectly sober, she denied all relations with him and even threatened divorce. Jokingly, obviously. They were stumbling back to their hotel room, when River held up a hand to stop him. 'What's... what's that?' She asked, pointing to light below the door of the room opposite them. _Her _room. The Doctor frowned.

'I don't know, let me... Have a look...' He leant against the wall for a second. 'Time Lords and vodka really don't mix,' he said matter-of-factly. Pulling the sonic out of his pocket, he pointed it and a green light shone at him right between the eyes. 'Oopsie,' he said. 'Wrong way round.' River rolled her eyes. She should _never_ have allowed him that third martini. He pointed it again, and sparks flew off the end of the sonic. What he saw made him sober up in all of half a second. 'No...' He breathed.

'What?' Asked River anxiously. What could have made the sonic react so violently?

'This is bad, very bad. This is pure Time Energy bad' – his voice was cut off by a muffled noise inside. The Doctor put his ear to the door and listened.

'Please... I can't go... I've only just met them, PLEASE!' Sobs drowned out the rest of her speech. 'Oh God. No, you can't make me go! They don't know yet... They can't know yet... I need to tell them, PLEASE! LISTEN TO ME!' The Doctor heard those four words and jumped into action, sonicing the door open and bursting in, River following close behind. The girl was on her knees, cheeks wet with tears, voice cracked with pain. There was a glowing white light surrounding her, and it was eating away at one of her hands, which she held in front of her face almost disbelievingly. 'No... please...' She was whispering over and over. She hardly seemed to notice the Doctor and River in her room.

'What's happening to her, Doctor?' Asked River, making a start towards the girl. He held out a hand.

'Don't. It's time energy, it's transporting her, as it were. Moving her to a different point in her own timestream. Some sort of unseen temporal force, pulling her away from this point in time and dragging her to another one.' He glanced at River, and answered her unspoken question. 'Why? I don't know. There are lots of reasons, but none which make sense.' The girl had noticed them now, and she was smiling as best as she could.

'You came,' she whispered. 'But there's not much you can do now. It's going to take me soon, I can feel it.' She suddered as a new wave of light passed over her body.

'No,' said the Doctor, 'You aren't going anywhere, not today!' He tried again with the sonic, wanting desperately to reach some sort of conclusion, but he was just rewarded by a burst of sparks and a burn on his hand from the white-hot screwdriver for his trouble. 'Aah!' He said, hissing in pain, and as he shook his hand in the air to try and cool it, he noticed something on his wrist. The watch... 'Of course,' he said. 'To transport a matter form this complicated, in temporal terms at least, you're going to need a lock-on point, something to concentrate the energy around, and what better than a watch? Nothing says 'time' more than a watch, it's the obvious choice!' He looked back to the girl, eyes squeezed shut against the pain, and saw the pure white light on her wrist. He took a deep breath, grinned at River, and then plunged his hand into the light.

The Doctor felt like he was floating. The light began to travel up his own body too, and it tingled where it touched, and then the tingling became more of a pricking and then a stabbing. He could feel his mind slowly beginning to fade around the edges, and he became less and less sure of who he was, and where, and why. It was like his mind was blanketed in thick fog. But through it, one though remained: _the watch. _His vision was blurring and he shook his head, trying to clear his head, focusing on her wrist. He groped about until his fingers closed around the cold metal of the watch face. 'Sorry,' he murmured, and tugged it off. It took a few goes, but finally the clasp came loose and it came off in his hand. He chucked it away and River crushed it with the heel of her stiletto. The white glare began to fade from the room, replaced slowly by the soft yellow light of the hotel lamp. The girl pushed herself up so she was sitting, her eyelids fluttering as she leant against the bed. Her eyes focused on the watch, which River was still standing on. When she spoke, her speech was slurred.

'Thanksfor... forsavingmeandeverything... tellyoumoreinthemorning... nightnight.' And with that, her head fell backwards and her eyes closed. River was by her side in an instant.

'Is she alright?'

'She's fine, just... something like that must take a lot out of you, I suppose. Even I feel a bit drowsy after that one.' The Doctor looked at the watch too. 'You really didn't need to crush it, you know.'

'I felt a bit useless, and I wanted to do something.' She put the watch in the bin. 'I'm going to stay here, make sure she's ok.'

'I need to sleep. It's very' – he yawned – 'tiring, being almost transported across the time vortex.' He left then, and River was alone, stroking her daughter's hair as she slept. She was so deep in thought that she didn't hear the sound of the broken watch, still ticking in the bin. And if she'd looked closer before she'd crushed it, she would have seen that the watch was familiar. Too familiar, in fact.

The watch was, without a coubt, the Doctor's.


	5. This is goodbye

Twelve hours later, the girl came to. The world slowly focused around her and she mumbled something unintelligible, propping herself up on one elbow. To her surprise, River was sitting on the end of the bed, the worried expression on her face clearing when she saw the girl was awake.

'I'm tired, not ill,' said the girl, trying to keep up the pretence – and everyone knew it was just a pretence – of being able to fend for herself, as she had been doing for so long. But River detected gratitude underneath the somewhat frosty reception.

'Well, I'm afraid you'll have to stay awake for long enough to answer the page-long list of questions the Doctor has for you. I haven't seen him this excited since the third moon of Farth Beta imploded and it rained curtains.' The girl raised her eyeborws.

'Yes... curtains... I remember it well' and then again she made the _I've-said-too-much _face. River decided not to press it, partly because the girl still looked tired, but mainly because at that moment the Doctor burst into the room, hair a mess – probably because he'd been running his hands through it in frustration for about an hour beforehand – and a grin on his face.

'Time Energy! Pure, 100% Time Energy! This is Christmas, this is really, truly Christmas! But why?' He asked, sitting down heavily beside her on the bed. 'And you are _not _allowed to say spoilers.' She grimaced, and you could see her working out the words in her head.

'I... look, basically. I don't know you as parents. When I was born, something bad happened, and I was separated from you...' She considered her next words, screwing up her face in concentration. 'I'm sorry – it's just... very hard to explain' – the Doctor cut off the rest of her sentence.

'Show me.'

'What?'

'Show me. If you can't tell me, show me. Just let me see.' He tapped his temple and she shook her head quickly.

'No, no, and nope. Definitely not, you could see something that would, I don't know, blow up the whole of Time and space with its spoilerishness.' She was grasping at straws, he could tell.

'Please.' He said gently. 'We both know how it works, and we both know that we' – here he gestured to himself and River – 'Really, really, need some answers.' She sighed assent.

'Fine. But please, when I tell you no, you get out of there.' She shuffled closer to him, closing her eyes, as did he. He placed his hands on either side of her head and concentrated. It took a few seconds to find a way through the barriers of her mind, shut off as she was. And when he was in, he wished he'd never even had the idea. The memories were fresh in her mind, but they cut deep like old wounds, he could tell. Only he didn't know exactly how old. Not then. He moved gingerly towards the memories. An image flew at him, and then another, then another. Though they seemed to be coming at him from left, right and centre, he still saw all of them. And he felt all of them too. Then he heard it, very faintly at first – _no. You've got to leave now._ He'd never been more relieved, he thought. 'Are you all right?' She asked.

'I'm...' He didn't want to say "fine", because that implied that he didn't really care about what he'd just seen (felt?) so he settled for, 'A bit shaken, I suppose.'

'You're crying,' she observed.

'So I am. So are you.'

'It's hard,' the girl said, looking down at her knees, 'Living it once the first time. And then it's harder stuck inside bits of it, in nightmares. But having to relive every bad bit there ever was, that's just the worst.' And then she walked off and left, the only sound in the room the door shutting behind her. River turned on the Doctor almost at once.

'What was it? What did you make her see?' He held up his hands.

'I didn't realise, I'm sorry.' He noticed she was still waiting for an explanation. 'When she was... a baby, she was... taken from us. I don't know the finer points. Whatever's been dragging her through time is _us. _She's been following us, if you will, not of her own accord, but it's the temporal residue we've left that her subconscious is trying to latch on to, and this is the first time. Apart from the wedding. She'd never met us before in her life, she's always been turning up late, but it seems that now the temporal energy is strong enough for her to get a hold. And apparently, she'd got a prior engagment, because somewhere else in her – our – timestream, something big is happening, and that's where she's going.' For River, everything seemed to fall into place. What she'd said about always turning up late, that second meeting at Space Florida reception, when River had gone purposefully slowly and the girl looked as though she'd been crying – because she had. She had thought she was going to lose them again and River couldn't help but feel responsible for that.

'I... That's...' She remembered back, a long time ago, being wrenched away from her parents before she even had a chance to know them. 'I didn't think. I never would have thought...'

'I know, neither did I,' he replied grimly. 'I'm going to go and find her.' He left the room, then, and left River standing in the middle of it, feeling once again like a spare part. Her thoughts wandered to that thing she'd bought the other day, in the Space Florida medical centre. She opened her handbag and looked at it – it wasn't so frightening. Packaged in plastic, and very sanitary-looking. She read the back. _'Two – three minutes achieve optimum results' _it said. She shrugged. _Two to three minutes, _she thought, _then I'm going after him. _

The Doctor walked through an endless maze of corridors, not entirely sure where he was going. Space Florida was huge – she could be anywhere. And then he saw something up ahead, something that made the blood run cold in his veins and his hearts momentarily stop beating. From underneath the lounge door up ahead, thin rays of white light spilled out into the corridor. He ran to the door and gave it a push, but it was sealed. _A sonic,_he thought, and he gave it a kick. _A sonic with very little power. _He fell into the room and the first thing he saw was her, surrounded by white light, sitting on a chair. She was much calmer now, and looked peaceful, almost happy, in fact. She shook her head when she saw him, smiling slightly. 'Years of waiting,' she said, 'And suddenly you're coming to save me from left, right and centre.'

'You're not going,' he said, ignoring his own advice he'd given to River earlier, putting his hands inside the light and grasping hers.

'Don't,' she said, 'Or you'll be taken too. I've got to go, sooner or later, and there's nothing you can do, because there isn't an external temporal point any more.' Her voice was growing steadily weaker. 'I don't think I can hold on for much longer, but... tell Mum I love er, and I love you too, Dad.' He could feel tears threatening to spill over his eyelashes. He knew that for once, there was absolutely nothing he could do. 'And Dad,' she continued, her voice as faint as a whisper, no, a breath – 'Remember. Time can be rewritten.' And then she was gone, the light contracting into itself all at once, and he cold feel the tears running down his cheeks, and he made no effort to wipe them away. He tried comforting himslef with the thought he'd see her again, but it didn't help. Somewhere inside his mind, a voice urged him to go and find river, to tell her what had happened, bt he couldn't. He would need to be strong for her, he knew – but right now he couldn't be strong for himself. _So young, _he thought, _but those eyes, so old beyond her years... _He shook his head.

'Who are you?' He whispered to the air around him. '_What _are you?' His thought was interrupted by the door opening. River stood in the doorway. She saw the tears on his face, put two and two together...

'Oh, Doctor,' she said, and she walked over to him and gripped his hand tight. 'We'll see her again, though, won't we? A bit younger, obviously, but still...'

'River, River, River. You know us. You know the kind of life we live. Since when were things ever that simple? We will see her again, but not as a baby, and I think next time we see her will be the last.'

'Oh, it won't,' she said, and she sounded so sure, he had to raise a questioning eyebrow – how do you know? She couldn't help but smile – she almost laughed, in fact. 'Doctor,' she said, 'I'm pregnant.'


End file.
